3.34 AVERAGE


My first Margaret Atwood since reading Handmaidens Tale many years ago. Interesting near future premise recognisable in the current socio-economic environment. But that was quickly sidelined by conspiracy and robotics. Not a great piece of literature and felt like cheap read.
jes3ica's profile picture

jes3ica's review

3.0

Bought these when they first came out and just got around to reading them. Now, I don't think the fifth installment is still available since they were pulled to publish as a novel. Oh well!
reflective tense medium-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark funny fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book started out extremely bleak, and then turned into something fairly ridiculous. The themes about sex and corporate greed are interesting, but somehow I didn’t understand where it was all going. The ending is quite thought-provoking though.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Upsetting and unsatisfying. The weakest of the Atwood dystopias that I’ve read.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark funny slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

2.5/5 El libro no se asemeja nada al genial Cuento se la criada. El tono es muy diferente y nunca se siente el drama por el que está pasando la pareja. Atwood abre temas muy interesantes, pero no los desarrolla, lo cual es una lástima porque son situaciones muy contemporáneas que podrían pasar, pero que no hay mayor explotación sobre ellas. El final es perturbador y eso me gustó mucho. Bien por eso.
dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm normally a huge fan of Margaret Atwood, which is why I was so excited to read this book. Hoo boy was I disappointed.

While I found the premise exciting at first, and was waiting to see the twist that comes so often in these dystopian-type stories, I just couldn't get attached to the characters for the plot to have any impact on me. It seemed like Stan and Charmaine had very little character development in the story - even at the sickeningly saccharine end, Charmaine was still naive and foolish (despite what she had gone through) and Stan was still a sexist asshole (his behavior at the end of the book, especially during the wedding and when he learns that Charmaine will be his forever, made me uncomfortable). I was surprised that neither of them had reexamined their relationship and the events that had transpired, even after (spoilers) Charmaine's "operation." There was no suspense in the plot just because the characters were just so damn unlikable, and I just couldn't care less about what happened to them.

While the ending was a happy one, it felt forced, mostly due to the fact that it was crammed into the last two short chapters of the book. I really wasn't happy for any of the main or side characters: the ending felt undeserved and too hastily put together, like Atwood was pushing against a publisher's deadline. Too many good things were thrown at the reader: WEDDING, BABY, JOCELYN, FRIENDS, AMERICAN DREAM, NEW JOB, etc. It was cheap, and if my appreciation for the trauma the characters had gone through was thin before, it was completely gone by that point. And for me, where the characters ended up (Charmaine as a happy housewife and mother and Stan as the proud working father), were just too 1950s for the supposedly feminist message this book was pushing.

While Atwood's previously demonstrated writing power in books like "The Handmaid's Tale" and her MaddAddam series saved this novel from a one-star rating, it's really the only thing that's going for it. If you want to read the book because of it's political message and themes, then go for it. But if you read it expecting it to be on par with Atwood's other novels, you'll be sorely disappointed.